President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Kamala Harris

(R) Donald Trump

80%↑

20%

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

(R) V. Archuleta

98%

2%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

(R) Marshall Dawson

95%

5%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Hurd

(D) Adam Frisch

50%

50%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(D) Trisha Calvarese

90%

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Crank

(D) River Gassen

80%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

(R) John Fabbricatore

90%

10%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) B. Pettersen

(R) Sergei Matveyuk

90%

10%

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

52%↑

48%↓

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
July 13, 2020 11:51 AM UTC

Lauren Boebert Is (Still) Playing Footsie With QAnon

  • 19 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

As the Grand Junction Sentinel’s Dennis Webb reports, the reality of June 30th’s biggest surprise in Colorado, the defeat of five-term incumbent Rep. Scott Tipton by upstart candidate Lauren Boebert, is sinking in with Republicans in CD-3–and although plenty of Republicans are gamely expressing excitement about Boebert, beneath the obligatory smiles there’s growing realization that this seat is in serious jeopardy:

Republican Brett Jolley believes voters in the primary just handed the seat to the Democrats and Mitsch Bush, unless somehow Trump has a landslide victory that carries over to Boebert’s race.

“I’m not thrilled about it,” he said of the primary outcome. “I’m afraid we just gave up our congressional seat.” [Pols emphasis]

Although there appears to be a long list of problematic moments in Boebert’s background waiting to be disclosed, the principal source of unease for Republicans immediately after Boebert’s victory in the Republican primary is an interview in which Boebert expressed enthusiasm for a fringe-right and thoroughly discredited conspiracy theory known as QAnon. Colorado Public Radio reported on Boebert’s “Q-curiousness” a week before the primary, and since then Boebert has been trying desperately to live it down:

Honestly, everything that I’ve heard on ‘Q’ — I hope that this is real, because it only means that America is getting stronger and better, and people are returning to conservative values. And that’s what I am for. And, so, everything that I have heard of this movement is only motivating and encouraging and bringing people together, stronger, and if this is real, then it could be really great for our country.

But in this latest Sentinel story about Republican unease with Boebert, we see that her dodge on the QAnon question actually says the quiet part out loud with astonishing frankness:

“I don’t follow QAnon,” she said last week. “The thing that I was referring to — anything that’s going to get conservatives to get involved with politics is definitely interesting and worth looking at.” [Pols emphasis]

Boebert just spilled the beans–not just about her own willingness to embrace QAnon, “Pizzagate,” “death panels,” Barack Obama’s birthplace, or any other fringe fiction fashionable on the far right, but why Republicans with much more political savvy than Boebert pander to these movements too. QAnon turns out conservative votes. Instead of condemning the QAnon fringe, she’s admitting that this fringe is part of her base.

By confirming the very thing she set out to deny, Boebert is validating the worries of detractors who say she’s simply out of her depth in the high-profile congressional race she created by winning–and that Scott Tipton’s weakness, which we’ve highlighted for years in this space, does not make Lauren Boebert a viable candidate.

Tweet
Share

Comments

19 thoughts on “Lauren Boebert Is (Still) Playing Footsie With QAnon”

  2. To quote Nutlid (so you know it’s real):

    Open your eyes. There is a plot underway to destabilize America before the election to hurt Trump. There is a rising crime wave across the nation at the same time Democrats are calling to disband the police. Soon we'll be hearing that only Sleepy Joe can save America from itself.

    The Deep State revolution is happening. Trump got too close and they are out to destroy him no matter how much America suffers. If Trump wins there will be violence in the streets BY LIBERALS that the good people of America will have to defend ourselves against. If Trump loses America as we know it is dead.

     

    1. Do you suppose it will ease the pain if liberals offered to start a Go Fundme campaign for proper ceremonies after "the America as we know it is dead"?

      I'm also a bit confused by "a rising crime wave across the nation" — Joe Ferullo, writing an opinion piece in THE HILL on 07/12/20 points out

      something strange and unexpected happened: Crime rates began to fall. They fell every year. Year after year.

      By 2016, the overall crime rate was less than half of what it was in 1991. Murder rates were cut in half. And yet, surveys indicated time and again that Americans believed crime actually was increasing. A Pew Center poll in late 2016 revealed that 57 percent of registered voters felt crime had gotten worse since 2008, even though FBI data showed violent and property crimes had decreased by double digits over that period.

      In the 2016 election, Donald Trump played on that mistaken belief, making a nonexistent national crime wave the cornerstone of his “American carnage” campaign.

      If crimes kept going down until 2016, and Trump became President in 2017, AND Trump said "I alone" can fix American carnage, wouldn't a rise in crime be a problem for the incumbent?  Especially if the same party had control of Presidency, House, Senate and (arguably) the Supreme Court for 2017-2018, and 3 quarters of those institutions until today? 

    2. Has anyone considered the possibility that Nutlid IS Q?

      Doesn't legend have it that Q is a federal government employee?

      We need to forward this theory to the Boebert campaign. 

      They may hoist Moderatus up on high as their lodestar.

  3. Wait, I've seen this movie before…

    By Labor Day, what passes as the mainstream Republicans in CD 3 become so concerned about Yosemite Samantha, her eccentricities, and her effect on legislative and county races that they realize the only solution is to draft a Republican officeholder from yesteryear to hijack the American Constitution Party's slot on the ballot, and run as a third party candidate.

    Is Tommy Tancredo available (since he has experience subbing in for a Constitution Party nominee and CD candidates are not required to live in the CD)?

    Or maybe Tipton himself?  Or the former U.S. Rep, Scott "Musings on Waters" McInnis? Ben Nighthorse Campbell? 

    Anyone? Please!!!

    1. There’s a chance Nutlid himself could run.  He has a registration history with House District 47 which overlaps with CD3.  Or, his bff Judy Reyher may be looking for a job after he got behind her 100% in the 2018 primary (promptly losing the primary to Don Bendell).  Bendell went on to be defeated by Bri Buentello.  Then Spanky and the gang tried to recall Bri. 

      You can always count on one thing: if Fluffy’s involved it’ll eventually be a shit show. 

      1. You can always count on one thing: if Fluffy’s involved it’ll eventually be a shit show. 

         

        Well, makes sense since Fluffy is, himself, a shit show.

  4. Boebert is a low-level performance actor – Caribou Barbie is a good comparable. Her schtick isn't as well polished as NRA leaders and nazi provocateurs giving speeches on campus.

    I see the whole Q thing as basically a performative act in a reality show, the same way that masking  became a "controversy". They don't really BELIEVE it, they use Q and Anti-masking Freedumb as identity markers. 

    This has been a characteristic of the Tea Party movement since the beginning. See also, their pretense using "ironic fascism", and gun erotica. 

    All politics is identity. Its just that the right wing lives, breathes, and understands symbols of identity better than the left.

      1. If history has any influence, this will follow a familiar pattern. Very soon, if not already, some very wealthy and powerful people will decide our pistol-packing mama can be useful to them politically. They will fund her ascent into the GOP stratosphere, grooming her to be an obedient soldier. Whether she can be trained or not, remains to be seen.

        She does not appear to be a stupid woman and if her right wing, in your face attitude is more than a show, she might be hard to handle. Perhaps there is some GOP operative who envisions her standing beside our "Law and Order" president as his running mate. 

        However it works out, it is likely to be muy entretenido…

  5. Are congressional candidates vetted by their respective parties?  Seems like we are only scratching the surface on past issues that will trickle in regarding Boebert.

    2. Lauren Opal Boebert’s maiden name was Roberts. She graduated from Rifle High School in 2004. She did not go to college. She married Jayson Boebert in 2005. They have four sons.
       
      She has claimed 3 different birthdates in interviews.
      Voter info only says “December1986.” 
       

      I’m not judging – I have friends and family with similar histories and tough life stories. However, none of those women chose to endanger the public with food, nor to spread fake conspiracy theories. 

      This is all public information. 

  6. Are there that many "mainstream" (I assume you mean sane) republicans in cd 3, or in Colorado for that matter, that they wouldn't vote for her?  Serious question. Or how many ordinary voters have even heard of qanon?

    1. Serious reply — these knuckleheads are today’s GOP mainstream, the river, the channel, the flow . . .

      What you’re asking about are yesteryear’s relics, the puddles, those now dry creek beds . . .

      We gotta’ stop using “mainstream” as a word for something long past.  What’s mainstream is what’s in the flow now.  There’s just no such thing today as a mainstream triceratops, or a mainstream Neanderthal . . .  

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

167 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!